


Save me!

by ellephedre



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Angst, F/M, Getting Back Together, Mutual Pining, Pining, R season, Smart Tsukino Usagi, UsagixMamoru, Usamamo love, breakup arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26269702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellephedre/pseuds/ellephedre
Summary: What if, after Mamoru broke up with her, Usagi decided to make him jealous? Would it break his heart too? Would Usagi have the strenght to go through with her plot? Happy ending guaranteed, after a lot of angst.
Relationships: Chiba Mamoru/Tsukino Usagi
Comments: 11
Kudos: 48





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Salvami!](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/678361) by ellephedre. 



> This story is set after episode 69, in which Mamoru kissed Usagi to save her from the nightmares the enemy had thrown her into, that were slowly killing her. I wasn't really satisfied with the outcome of that episode and with how the whole break-up arc was resolved. I wanted Usagi to put Mamoru in a more difficult position, to allow him to understand his errors and live his feelings more freely.  
> So here it is, my take on the events :)

SAVE ME  
a break-up arc what if, written by ellephedre  
  
N/A: this story is set after episode 69, in which Mamoru kissed Usagi to save her from the nightmares the enemy had thrown her into, that were slowly killing her. I wasn't really satisfied with the outcome of that episode and with how the whole break-up arc was resolved. I wanted Usagi to put Mamoru in a more difficult position, to allow him to understand his errors and live his feelings more freely.  
So here it is, my take on this story :)  
  
\-----------------------------  
  
When Usagi felt down, she opened the music box Mamoru had given her. She curled up in the blankets and closed her eyes, losing herself in the memory of their few, precious kisses.  
  
She listened to the melody to give herself hope, but sometimes she interrupted it in the middle.  
  
“I don't want to stay with you for what has happened in the past!”  
  
Maybe their bond was a burden for her Mamo-chan. Maybe he had left her because he was trying to figure out if he loved her as Usagi, as Sailor Moon, or as Serenity. It was exactly what Mamoru would do, right? He was a guy who liked to be clear about his feelings. Although in the last few weeks ...  
  
She was still trying to understand the reason for his behavior.  
  
First he says he hates her, then he rushes to save her. He claims to do it only out of duty, but then, when she throws herself into his arms, he holds her for a second too long, as if he too missed touching her. When he pushes her away it's with a nastiness that doesn't belong to him - by now Usagi is sure of it - and she believes less and less in his protests.  
  
If he had been sincere in not wanting her anymore, he would have been kinder in rejecting her. He wouldn't tell her he couldn't stand the sight of her. If he had realized he didn't love her, he would take her aside and explain that he was so sorry for not having the same feelings anymore. He would try to make her understand that he hadn't done it on purpose; he would apologize, he would show her that he was suffering for having deluded her.  
  
Yes, Mamoru could never be malicious and insulting on purpose, so it was all a sham.  
  
The more he behaved badly, the more she became convinced that he was still in love with her.  
  
She had had definitive proof of it only the day before. Mamoru had awakened her from horrible nightmares by taking her in his arms; her friends had told her that he had kissed her desperately, almost crying.  
  
She didn't remember the kiss - oh, if only she could remember - but she remembered his eyes as he saw her awake, safe and sound.  
  
She had seen his relief, his happiness.  
  
If only the monster hadn't interrupted them ....  
  
“What are you listening to?”  
  
She clicked the music box shut, trying to hide it from Chibiusa. “It's mine!”  
  
Chibiusa frowned, crossing her arms. “It's not yours, I've already heard that music!”  
  
As if! “You heard wrong!”  
  
“No, show me what you're hiding!”  
  
Not a chance! “Never, you are rude! Why do you keep sneaking into my room?”  
  
“Because you hide everything from me!”  
  
“I have my privacy, don't you understand? When I close the door you are not welcome here!”  
  
Chibiusa turned red in the face, stamping her foot on the carpet. “You are boring and unpleasant!”  
  
“Look who's talking!”  
  
She hid her head under the covers and did not regret for a second her behaviour: the little pestifer was out of her room and that was all that mattered. Usagi would never show her Mamoru's music box. Didn't Chibiusa have enough of him already?  
  
“You act as if you are her age.”  
  
She heard Mamoru's words in her head. He had pronounced them just a week ago, while they were on their way to Chibiusa's school to prepare curry together. Usagi knew that on that occasion he had been sincere.  
  
She sighed sadly.  
  
 _I could be more pleasant to her if you were kinder to me._  
  
 _Why can't you tell me what's wrong?_  
  
 _Why can't you love me like you used to?_  
  
Why was he inventing more and more complicated ways to make her suffer? Okay, he did it to keep her away, perhaps just when he was afraid of getting too close, but he was terribly accurate in making her feel terrible. Maybe sooner or later he would really pretend to find another girl; Usagi did not know if she would be able to stand it.  
  
Whimpering, she reopened the music box, hoping to be comforted by its notes.  
  
\----  
  
Two days later she was wandering around the city alone, going back home after a date with the girls. The air was charged with ... something.  
  
When she felt like that, there was going to be another enemy attack - or Mamoru was nearby. Expectations animated her like a fool, even if she didn't know what would happen.  
  
Standing in the street, she pulled a small mirror out of her purse, to check her appearance. She should be wearing some makeup, right? Even though Mamoru felt nothing for Motoki's sister, Unazuki was so cute. She was just a year older than her, but she looked much more adult. On Mamoru's bike, sitting behind him, Unazuki had looked as the ideal girlfriend: self-confident, relaxed, at ease with boys...  
  
Usagi would never get on the bike of a guy she barely knew.  
  
 _If I did, how Mamo-chan would react?_  
  
He probably wouldn't care. Maybe he still loved her - deeply down in his soul - but he was also convinced that no guy could feel that kind of interest for her.  
  
Putting the mirror away, Usagi sighed. With her luck, she was adjusting her bangs to make herself beautiful for the enemies.  
  
She leaned against a wall and reached into her purse with one hand. How much money had she brought with her? She wanted another ice-cream. It would be the second of the day, but she didn't care. There was nothing better for heartache than sweets.  
  
When she raised her head, she couldn't believe her eyes.  
  
Mamoru! He was coming out of a bookstore, with two volumes under his arms and a third one open in his hands. He was reading and he was distracted; he hadn't seen her.  
  
She tried to restrain her enthusiasm. “Hello.”  
  
He stopped suddenly, as if her voice had electrocuted him. He began to walk sideways, to pass her by.  
  
He didn't even greet her anymore.  
  
She swallowed and braced herself. “What happened yesterday...”  
  
He straightened his neck, without turning around. “It was a gesture of human compassion.”  
  
She was going to cry.  
  
Mamoru closed his book. “I told you: the fact that I no longer love you doesn't mean that I want to see you die.”  
  
“To the point of kissing me?”  
  
He bowed his head, not having the courage to show his face. “I did what I had to do. It wasn't easy, but I didn't want to have you on my conscience.”  
  
She called on all her strength not to sob. Mamo-chan was lying, they were all lies ... She had to stop him from leaving. “Unazuki told me she's not your girlfriend!”  
  
He froze again.  
  
She didn't want to talk to his back anymore and walked around him, to look at his face.  
  
Mamoru frowned hard. Had he been indifferent, he would not have had to put on such a cold armor to face her.  
  
“I never said she was my girlfriend. We were just going out together.”  
  
“She already has a boyfriend.”  
  
This time he was not taken by surprise. “I found out about it later. It doesn't matter, I'll find another girlfriend.”  
  
Usagi wasn't devastated just because she had given it some thought. “Do you need one to forget about me?”  
  
“Don't give yourself so much importance.”  
  
She followed him as he went away, without giving up. “I have to, if you suddenly turn into a ladies' man. You don't like being with people.”  
  
“You don't know me.”  
  
“You were the one who told me that.”  
  
Mamoru turned, determined to destroy her hopes. “I was trying to indulge you and make you believe you were special to me.”  
  
The lump in her throat turned into a sob. With just a few words he could break her in two.  
  
Mamoru gritted his teeth and didn't look away, to make her think he was serious.  
  
“You wouldn't be so mean if you really didn't love me anymore.” She had to believe that, she had to!  
  
He rolled his eyes, exasperated. “I've had enough. I got tired of repeating the same things over and over.”  
  
“I too could get tired of loving you.” She only said it out of spite, out of desperation, but Mamoru's shoulders jumped.  
  
“It's about time.”  
  
Was it possible that...? “Then goodbye, Mamo-chan.” She backed away. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that it was she who was leaving, not him. She told herself not to stop and to keep running far, far away.  
  
... had she hurt him?  
  
But it was the only way, if running after him didn't work.  
  
 _Will it do any good, Mamo-chan? You won't take that as an excuse to say goodbye for real, right?_

\---------------  
  
"I think it's an excellent strategy."  
  
At Rei's house, Usagi was surprised. "It was you who told me that I should continue to answer him kindly."  
  
Rei crossed her arms. "True, but Mamoru takes advantage of it and I don't like to see you cry all the time. Let him try some of his own medicine."  
  
"What if he really forgets about me?"  
  
Rei waved her hand in the air. "It won't happen. He lies a million times if he says he saved you out of pity. You should have seen the way he held you the other night... the way he caressed your hand... How long he kissed you."  
  
Ohh, those words made her dream! "So you think I am doing well by ignoring him?"  
  
"Of course. By now I am angry for you, take a little revenge. How about making him as jealous as he tried to make you?"  
  
"Well, I don't know if it would work. And I don't have anyone to help me."  
  
Rei was leaning back on her palms. "Do you want us to go to Harajuku together? Let's go for a ride and pick up a couple of guys. One of them will do the trick."  
  
Usagi doubted it, moreover... "I don't want to deceive a stranger. My heart is only Mamo-chan's."  
  
Rei sighed. "You have too many scruples."  
  
"I don't want to make anyone suffer."  
  
"A simple first date won't mark a guy for life. However, now that I think about it, you wouldn't be credible in front of Mamoru. I can already see you all clumsy and embarassed..." Rei dropped the hand she had been caressing her chin with and jumped to her feet. "What if...?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Do you still have the Moon Pen?"  
  
Uh? "Yes, it's here with me."  
  
"Perfect!" Rei lit up. "Pass it to me."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Do you want me to waste time explaining it to you, or shall I show you what I have in mind?"  
  
Usagi took the pen out of her purse, curious. "Here."  
  
Rei rubbed it in her hands. "It will be your karmic instrument!"  
  
"What?"  
  
Eyes shining, Rei lifted the pen up in the sky, exalted. "Moon Power! I want to transform into a handsome guy!"  
  
Usagi's jaw fell to the ground. Rei had gone mad, did she really want to turn herself into a man?  
  
The lights of the transformation dissolved and Usagi's tongue rolled to the ground.  
  
Rei's hair had shortened up to her neck, her breasts had disappeared, her shoulders had widened and her whole face...  
  
Rei ran to the mirror and swelled her chest. "Wow! Not bad at all!" She looked at her new self from ten different angles. "I look like an idol! But not the leader of the group, rather the cute element that makes the hearts of twelve-year-old girls beat faster. Not what I was aiming for!"  
  
Usagi was gasping for breath. "Am I mistaken, or do you like being a man?"  
  
Male Rei grabbed a manga and throw it at her. "That's how you talk to a friend who wants to help you?" As she said it, the transformation dissolved, making her a girl again.  
  
Usagi sighed with relief. "It didn't last long."  
  
"Because I asked the pen to undo the spell." Rei showed the finger that held down the button. "I want to be more precise this time." She tried again with her arm raised. "Moon power! I want to transform into a guy more handsome than Mamoru Chiba!"  
  
Usagi screamed in silence, covering her eyes.  
  
A guy more handsome than Mamo-chan? He could not exist!  
  
In the background she heard a male exclamation and opened half an eye. The guy who had appeared in the room was at least ten centimeters taller than the previous transformation and was grabbing Rei's mirror with both hands.  
  
"Damn! I would be perfect for myself like this, why can't I meet such a perfect specimen?"  
  
Usagi kepts her eyelids shut. "Because it's you! Have you gone mad? How could you use the name of Mamo-chan?"  
  
"Because with this face and this body..."  
  
Usagi felt him approaching, with a deep voice that made her tremble with embarrassment.  
  
Two hands grabbed her wrists, forcing her to look.  
  
A pair of beautiful purple eyes peered at her from underneath two thick eyebrows shaped like Rei's.  
  
"We'll make him die, Usagi-chan. He'll come back to you crawling."  
  
He winked at her, making her blush.  
  
Rei was proud of herself. "Yes, that's exactly how you should react! Jealousy will eat him alive!"  
  
Usagi wanted to bury herself under the tatamis of the room.  
  
\----  
  
With every day that passed, Mamoru touched new heights of depression. Maybe he had to stop leaving home - because wherever he went, Usagi was able to find him and torment him.  
  
...he would have to find another way to save her from the nightmares' prophecy. He shouldn't have kissed her - with such a behaviour he kept confusing her. Then he had to be cruel and tear her heart out among tears.  
  
 _I should move out of the city._  
  
He would have done so immediately if, from afar, he could protect her as Tuxedo Kamen.  
  
If he had not been in Tokyo, what would have happened two nights earlier? He would have let her die. Then what would have been the point of leaving her?  
  
If it had to end like that, they might as well have stayed together, so he could hold her, tell her that it had all been a lie...  
  
 _By now I am so believable that she'll never forgive me._  
  
He didn't deserve any forgiveness anyway. He didn't deserve anything, he was a petty and coward human being who couldn't be consistent in his own cruelty. He should have made Usagi cry a single time - when he had left her - and not on repeat.  
  
 _But I keep meeting her..._  
  
The next time he would just run away. He wouldn't answer her. It would do her less harm than receiving more contempt from him.  
  
He went to the refrigerator, determined to have dinner with a single omelet.  
  
He discovered he didn't even have eggs in the house.  
  
He sighed.  
  
He had to go shopping, but first he would make a list of what he was missing, to buy everything at once. His motto had to be 'get out as little as possible'. So he would not meet Usagi and maybe, if he spent his time sleeping, sooner or later he would understand the meaning of those terrible nightmares.  
  
It was his only hope.  
  
\--  
  
Usagi was anxious and excited at the same time. "If we follow him, won't he get suspicious?"  
  
At her side Rei stood thirty centimeters above her, fabulous in her new male clothes. On their way from the temple to Mamoru's apartment they had been stopped by two talent scouts who had tried to hire her for their fashion agencies. Not to mention the number of female jaws that had opened wide as she passed by.  
  
Rei came out of the alley with just her head, to check the street. "Aren't you tired of suffering?"  
  
"Yes, but...you look like yourself, Rei. Mamo-chan will realize that it's you."  
  
"I have already told you, he will think that I am a relative of mine. Or have you told him that you have a pen that can transform you into anybody?"  
  
"Uh, no."  
  
"Then it will work, just wait and see."  
  
"Yes, but this is not an area I usually go to..."  
  
"Who cares! Since when do you focus on such things?"  
  
Since she was nervous! "Mamo-chan will never believe that a guy like you is interested in someone like me! No one has believed it until now, seeing us together!" People had checked her out like she was some kind of repulsive frog walking alongside a semi-god.  
  
"Only because I treated you like a friend." Rei couldn't wait to play her role and show off her male beauty. "I'll be so credible in front of him!"  
  
At the mere thought of it Usagi was already embarrassed. "What do I have to do?"  
  
"Be yourself. My presence alone will be enough to make Mamoru agitated."  
  
"Okay, but don't try to kiss me!"  
  
Rei's shoulders fell off. "I don't love you that much, Usagi."  
  
"I know, but you're getting into your role with too much enthusiasm!"  
  
Rei smoothed her shirt on her chest. "It's just that I would like to kiss myself! I am so charming!"  
  
"You are narcissistic."  
  
"Ha, when you watch me you drool too!"  
  
"Only because you told the pen to make yourself more handsome than Mamo-chan! Otherwise you couldn't exist, it wouldn't be possible!"  
  
"Of course, of course! There are a lot of handsome men like me, but you see only Mamoru! That's good for the rest of us, we'll have less competition. I'll be the one to get a fantastic guy like- Ah, he's coming!"  
  
Usagi turned around. "Where?"  
  
"There, he's coming out of his building! He's coming this way, I told you so. Let's move to the supermarket!"  
  
"How do you know he's headed there?"  
  
"I don't know it, but from that point he can see you from afar! Your hairstyle is too recognizable!"  
  
Usagi managed to run faster than her despite the different length of their legs. "Don't exaggerate, okay? He must get a little jealous, but not so much as to-".  
  
"Leave you?"  
  
Usagi got suddenly sad.  
  
Rei took pity on her. "Oh, Usagi. It can't get any worse than this, believe me."  
  
\-----  
  
Mamoru had brought a backpack to fill with groceries. He was trying to remember what he needed when, suddenly, he felt a thrill. Usagi. He perceived her even before he saw her. Part of him wanted to run to her - a reaction he would have until the end of his days.  
  
Pathetic.  
  
He froze and looked up, just to see in which direction he had to move to avoid her.  
  
He only half-caught Usagi's tails. Her figure was almost entirely hidden from view by another person - a guy. He was talking to her from less than a meter away and his back was so massive that Mamoru's first reaction was to throw himself between the two of them, to save Usagi.  
  
He stood still, unable to understand.  
  
Usagi was not running away from the stranger, she was talking to him.  
  
She was hesitantly pointing the way, as if she were explaining to him how to orient himself in the area.  
  
How come? Who was that?  
  
As if they had decided where to go, she and the boy turned towards him, walking.  
  
Mamoru saw the guy's face, but above all he saw how Usagi reacted to his proximity. She kept her eyes on the road. She was embarrassed, confused, and occasionally moved her lips into a shy smile - as she had done on their first dates, when he had been to one to disconcert her.  
  
Mamoru's brain stopped working.  
  
\---  
  
Usagi did not have the courage to look up.  
  
"He's watching us," Rei whispered by her side, without speeding up the pace.  
  
"Let's not go towards him." Usagi realized she couldn't do it. Perhaps she was stupid and weak, but she was ashamed. She felt like she was cheating on him.  
  
Rei let a hand slide around her wrist. "Usagi."  
  
A gasp came out of her chest that made her feel guilty. The hand of the male version of Rei was too big and warm. "What?"  
  
"You are not doing anything wrong."  
  
Even though her voice gave her the shivers, Usagi was able to go beyond the timbre and focus on the soul of her friend speaking to her. "I suffered so much when he did that to me."  
  
Rei bowed her head. "But you are not the one who broke up with him."  
  
Certainly, however... "Can you see what he's doing?"  
  
"Only out of the corner of my eye. I don't want to seem too obvious."  
  
"Is he coming toward us?"  
  
"I think he's going back home."  
  
Usagi had believed that there was a limit to pain, but she had been wrong. Agony was as vast as the whole moon. "Let's go away."  
  
"Usagi-chan..."  
  
"Maybe he really doesn't care about me anymore."  
  
Rei took her by the shoulders. "Don't be like that. It couldn't work the first time."  
  
Usagi-chan didn't want to sob in the street. She would cry so loud that Mamoru would hear her. "Please..."  
  
"Okay, okay, let's go." Rei took her hand, almost regretting the whole plan. "Oh, Usagi. Your love can be seen from a mile away."  
  
Usagi allowed herself to whine only when they turned the corner. "I can do nothing about it..."  
  
Rei caressed the back of her neck. "Mamoru, on the other hand, keeps his love hidden in a reinforced concrete safe. He would have never shown us a reaction today, but you'll see: in one way or the other, it was not for nothing."  
  
Usagi let herself be held, without feeling anything for the version of Rei she was embracing. She only cared about Mamo-chan and how he had ignored her even when seeing her in the company of another guy.  
  
She wept bitter tears.  
  
\------  
  
That evening Mamoru did not eat. He barely drank a glass of water.  
  
He went to bed at nine o'clock and if he slept he barely noticed it.  
  
In the morning he looked at the dark circles under his eyes and thought he had to get used to the image.  
  
The reality had just become as horrible as his nightmares - and he could do nothing to change it.  
  
\-----  
  
  
N/A: the story has already been fully written in italian, this is a translation. Let me know you are waiting for part two and you'll have it asap!  
In the meantime, search Youtube for my channel (I am 'ellephedre' there too). I've recently recorded a video in English, speaking about the italian Sailor Moon fandom. I also have another one in English, in which I talk about Seiya and his behaviour in episode 194.  
I've recently discovered that Google Translator works way better than it did in the past. So I just had to to a few tweaks to the translation to make it presentable in English. I am so happy, I have TONS of stories to present to you.  
I've been writing about Sailor Moon non stop for the last twelve years :)  
  
Elle  
  



	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is Rei's plan working?

SAVE ME  
a break-up arc what if, written by ellephedre  
  
PART 2  
\-----------------------------  
  
For Usagi the attack of a new droid happened at the right time: she was drowning in sadness; not even the chocolate cake cooked by her mom had lifted her moods.  
  
The first to join her in battle was Minako. Venus immediately noticed the slowness of her movements and almost risked her life by pushing her away, avoiding for a breath the deadly ray of Berthier's droid.  
  
Usagi woke up from her apathy. She could not risk the lives of her friends!  
  
Berthier was watching her from above in the air. "The last droid of my sisters almost eliminated you, Sailor Moon. What do you think, should I try another special trick?"  
  
Minako clenched her fists, worried: she couldn't let it happen. "I'll stop you! Venus Love-Me Chain!"  
  
Berthier tried to dodge, but she got whipped in the thigh.  
  
"OUCH! How dare you, my beautiful skin!" Their enemy turned red in the face. "Twin Droids, make them pay!"  
  
As the droid's voice faded, it split in two. "At your orders!" The monster started pouring green matter from its arms, like in a horror movie. "Multiplication!" it shouted.  
  
Usagi materialized her scepter in her hand, preparing to attack.  
  
The cloning of the droid accelerated in the blink of an eye: one second it was a shapeless mass waving on the ground, the next it had become the perfect replica of the original.  
  
Usagi twirled her arms in the air. "Moon Princess..."  
  
The droid extended its limb for at least ten meters, hitting her Cutie Moon Rod and hurling it far away. Usagi jumped high in the air, to avoid a blow to her legs. "Ahh!"  
  
"Sailor Moon!" Venus tried to come to her rescue, but the other droid immediately engaged her in battle.  
  
Why hadn't the other Senshi arrived?!  
  
Usagi jumped to the top of a tree; she had to bend in two to prevent the droid's limb from cutting her like the branch above her head. That thing had become sharp?!  
  
_Mamo-chan, Mamo-chan...._  
  
She called him by instinct, even though she knew he wouldn't show up again.  
  
On the ground the droid sneered. "Twinsss." With a hiss it prepared himself for the final attack.  
  
Stretching her muscles, Usagi managed to jump away just a moment before the tree's trunk was cut in two. She aimed for a second oak, but calculated the distance badly. She landed on the surface of a branch with only the tip of her shoe. While trying to hold on to something, she twisted her ankle.  
  
_Help!_  
  
She didn't hit the pavemente. She was grabbed at the last moment and flew away, high in the sky, at least five meters above ground level .  
  
Oh.  
  
She clung to Mamoru's black cloak. She would have loved to get lost in the moment, but as soon as they landed they jumped off again, her stomach dancing. The droid kept attacking them with two different kinds of axes and they had to jump from one point to the another to avoid its blows, three times.  
  
She was getting seasick.  
  
"My scepter!" she shouted to Mamoru, pointing at it.  
  
He managed to reach the flowerbed where her rod had ended up. He deposited Usagi there and managed to block one of the monster's attacks with his cane. At the next assault his weapon didn't resist and ended up sliced, but he'd prepared himself. He threw about twenty roses at the monster, all together - as he had done with Rubeus a couple of weeks earlier.  
  
Usagi had managed to load her attack. "Moon Princess..." She accelerated her twirling while gritting her teeth. Her ankle hurt. "Halation!"  
  
She did not allow the energy beam to run out at the first discharge. She killed the first droid and, holding on to the power that was being released, jumped like a crippled cicada to the side, hitting the droid that was tormenting Minako. "HA!" she screamed, charging herself to finish him off for good.  
  
The light of her attack dissolved along with the dust that decreed the end of both enemies.  
  
A long, exhausted sigh came out of her body.  
  
Minako gasped, overjoyed. "Girls, over here!"  
  
The others were arriving in a hurry.  
  
Usagi had not yet put her wounded foot to the ground.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
Mamo-chan? He hadn't left?  
  
She did not know what stopped her from turning around. Perhaps a mixture of shame - for the scene she had created the day before - and a pinch of intuition. "I don't know if I can walk," she murmured.  
  
"Shall I take you to the others?"  
  
... he was offering to touch her when the battle was over? "No need. They are close."  
  
In truth her friends were about fifteen meters away. Rei in particular had blocked herself from advancing, observing them from afar with great attention.  
  
Usagi's heart was beating fast. She had answered Mamoru detachedly, but he was still behind her, no longer in a hurry to leave.  
  
Remaining balanced on one leg, Usagi swallowed. "Do you care about my health only because, if I were wounded, I wouldn't be able to fight?  
  
He began to back away. "It's important for everyone that you stay healthy." The rustling of his cloak told her that he had gone away, disappearing into the night.  
  
Rei ran to meet her, mouth wide open. "What happened?"  
  
Usagi leaned against her shoulder to support herself. She was incredulous. "Rei-chan... I..."  
  
"What did he say to you?"  
  
A smile conquered her face. "I think it worked."  
  
\--  
  
Her friends stayed with her all the way home.  
  
Makoto didn't know whether to laugh or gasp. "You turned into a boy?"  
  
Rei wasn't ashamed of it, at all. "I'll do it again! Don't you see? Mamoru fell for it!"  
  
Ami had shadows in her face. "It's not fair to use subterfuges to push a person to-"  
  
"AMI!" The three-way choir was unanimous.  
  
Minako hugged her by the neck, to shut her up. "Who cares about being fair! He's the one being all mysterious. He deserves this treatment, I should have thought of it first!"  
  
Makoto was still laughing. "And here I thought he was a block of ice..."  
  
Usagi felt the need to defend him. "He's not. Mamo-chan struggles to express his feelings, he keeps everything inside."  
  
"Ah-ha!" Rei admonished her. "Don't get on his side right now! You'll have to make him suffer again!"  
  
Usagi knew she had to do it - by now she was willing to do anything - but she still was terribly ashamed. "What else must we show him? A little love scene, maybe? Oh, I can't do it, I can't do it-"  
  
Rei let her go with a snap. "What the hell? Are you sure you don't have a crush on my male alter ego?"  
  
Minako was jumping up and down, full of curiosity. "I must see you as a guy, Rei, let's go to your house!"  
  
"Usagi can't even walk!" Makoto scolded her.  
  
Ami was fiddling around in her purse. "She needs an ointment, there's a pharmacy over there. I'll be right back!"  
  
Rei, Minako, and Makoto were very happy to talk without having her sensible voice blocking their most treacherous plans.  
  
"No love scene!" began Minako. "If so little worked yesterday, just continue on the same path."  
  
"Exactly!" Makoto had Usagi sit on a low wall. "You wouldn't be credible if you forgot about him after such a short time. You might get the opposite reaction: his jealousy might turn intto contempt."  
  
Usagi bit her lip. "No!"  
  
Rei was metaphorically rubbing her hands. "He'll never despise her, you don't know him as well as I do. Mamoru Chiba is a proud guy."  
  
Minako placed her hands on her hips. "Do you need to remind Usagi that you went out with him?"  
  
"Shut up. I'm just saying, if he's still paying attention to her after seeing her in the company of the beautiful male me, his pride is already under the sole of his shoes. It won't take long for him to surrender. I just had the right idea!"  
  
"What?" asked Usagi, quiveringly.  
  
Rei tried not to giggle too loudly. "Does Chibiusa still go to his house?"  
  
\---  
  
For Mamoru the words that filled the textbooks no longer had any significance - or importance.  
  
He couldn't understand their meaning, by now his life was an endless gray heath.  
  
Usagi was forgetting about him. She hadn't even looked back at him when he had tried to help her.  
  
The doorbell rang twice and a glimmer of light brightened his day.  
  
Chibiusa.  
  
She had promised to visit him in the afternoon.  
  
He went to open the door. She entered his house full of energy and happiness, tightening the straps of her backpack to her shoulders with small hands. "Hello, Mamo-chan!"  
  
"Hi." He caressed her head full of pink hair, lingering on the cone-shaped pigtails.  
  
Chibiusa looked so much like Usagi... but her character was so unique that it was difficult to confuse them.  
  
She took off her shoes at the entrance. "Today I have a lot of homework to do!"  
  
"Of course, come in, I'll help you. Do you want to eat something sweet first?"  
  
"Always!"  
  
He smiled. Just when he thought that Chibiusa had nothing to do with his Usako...  
  
She twirled around in the living room. "I have great news!"  
  
"Really?" He made his way into the kitchen, to retrieve the cake he had bought for her.  
  
"Baka-Usagi won't bother you anymore! She no longer loves you!"  
  
It was like a gunshot - a death sentence that a childish voice like hers should not be able to pronounce.  
  
His limbs stiffened; he managed to move his throat, barely. "Uh?"  
  
Chibiusa sat down on the low table, opening her backpack. She was unaware of the effect her words had had on him. "Rei told me that Usagi just started dating her cousin! I didn't know Rei had a cousin, did you?"  
  
...no.  
  
"Anyway, now that nasty Usagi will leave you alone! Isn't it nice, Mamo-chan?"  
  
Empty, Mamoru stared into space.  
  
"Mamo-chan?"  
  
He sat down only because any moment now he wouldn't be able to stand anymore.  
  
Chibiusa stopped talking.  
  
... Usagi was forgetting about him?  
  
A small resentful voice came to his ear. "You were the one who broke up with her, why are you sad now?"  
  
Yeah. He had no right.  
  
He was selfish - a tremendous egocentric.  
  
Chibiusa scrabbled furiously in her notebooke. "Usages is messy, careless, she never helps Mama Ikuko..."  
  
Mamoru empathized with her jealousy. "She's not so bad."  
  
Chibiusa looked at him with heartfelt eyes. "Don't you hate her too?"  
  
"No." Mamoru stroked her hair again. "I'll never hate her."  
  
PART 2 - END  
  
\--  
  
N/A - so Rei's plan is working. For whom do you feel the most? Usagi or Mamoru?  
Let me know to have part 3, your reviews are my motivation to keep translating the story :)  
  
  
Elle  
  
  



	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pain intensifies for both Usagi and Mamoru...

**SAVE ME**  
a break-up arc what if, written by ellephedre  
  
PART 3  
  
Mamoru's nightmares had taken on a new form: in his dreams he and Usagi were no longer getting married. She was dressed as a bride, but she was walking down the aisle with another guy.  
  
As she advanced, Usako turned, looking for him with tears in her eyes. She was in pain, but seeing that he didn't move to reach her, she went forward, far away, hand in hand with the stranger.  
  
When Mamoru woke up from the new nightmare, he saw her as she had been some weeks ago, her elbows resting on the edge of his bed, during one of her visits to his house.  
  
"What I'd like to be when I grow up? I cannot tell you, you'll laugh."  
  
He had shook his head, worshipping the pinkness on her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes. Usagi had brought light to the solitary shadows of his apartment.  
  
"I'd like to be a singer, but I can't sing. I'd like to be an actress, but I can't act..."  
  
He had laughed.  
  
"There, you see?"  
  
She was mistaken. "I used to criticize you only because I have to ruin everything that is good around me. Too much hope... confuses me. It seems more sensible to make it disappear, so that others can prepare themselves for the letdown, not remaining as disappointed as I was".  
  
Usagi had slipped towards him on the carpet. "What disappointed you?"  
  
Too many things. "The list would never end. I was just trying to say that you don't have to listen to me when I dissectionate hope too rationally. I can't dream like you, but the truth is... I like to see you do it. It's a gift, Usako."  
  
She had taken his hand - a bit to console him, a bit to play with it. She had blushed so sweetily.  
  
"My real dream... is to marry you, Mamo-chan. One day, when we are older."  
  
He had felt a wave of heat spreading through his chest.  
  
Usagi had placed her head on the edge of the mattress, looking at him dreamily. "You'll wear a wonderful tuxedo... a white one, so you won't look too much like Tuxedo Kamen. And I... I'd like a dress with a wide skirt and a long veil that goes down my back. I would be prettier in makeup than I am now..."  
  
"You can't be prettier."  
  
Usagi had pressed her face against the sheets, dying of happiness. The image of her looking up at him with a touching smile was forever printed in his head.  
  
"There will be so many people celebrating with us! And after that day... I dream of becoming the best wife in the world for you. I don't know how to do almost anything else, but this... I'll succeed, I won't let you down!"  
  
He had touched the lock of hair that had escaped from behind her ear. "I believe you."  
  
He hadn't been the only one kissing her - she had kissed him back. And between them there had been a promise, an exchange, a declaration.  
  
Feeling like he was bleeding pain, Mamoru didn't mind the sunshine hitting his face.  
  
He had managed to ruin that memory too.  
  
He had made it insignificant with his escape. He had trampled on and pulled down every single word of love he had ever told her.  
  
He had never opened up to anyone like with Usagi and now she thought he was a liar - to the point that, to stop suffering, she was spending her time with another guy.  
  
Inevitable.  
  
It was happening now, but if he really had to stay away from her forever... sooner or later Usagi would love someone else. She would marry someone else. She would be the best wife in the world for someone else.  
  
...what was the point of being reborn as Endymion and Serenity, if it had to end like this?  
  
If only he had never known, if only he had never remembered... No.  
  
If his memories had stayed buried, he couldn't have saved her. He would have never helped her and Usagi would be alone in her battles.  
  
 _She has her friends._  
  
But they could not protect her as he did. Sometimes he was not able to do anything, but even without any real powers he was able to defend her from mortal blows. His life was worth nothing if hers didn't continue.  
  
With that reasoning, sooner or later he would die behaving as a human shield, but... it made sense. At least his misery would end.  
  
He pulled himself up from the bed, crushing his head in his hands.  
  
No, he did not want to die. He mustn't even consider it.  
  
He had chosen a path for himself before Usagi. His life had made sense before meeting her.  
  
Perhaps one day the battles would end, and if the nightmares continued...  
  
 _If I can find out who sends them to me, Usako, and how he wants to hurt you..._  
  
It wouldn't matter anymore.  
  
Usako was already forgetting about him.  
  
It was a good thing. She had cried too much for their very short relationship. She didn't have to shed any more tears for him - him, who ruined everything he touched.  
  


* * *

  
  
"The enemies haven't shown up for a week."  
  
Minako didn't understand why Ami was complaining. "They must be on vacation. I bet they're waiting for September to get back to work, like everyone else."  
  
Makoto had a good laugh. "I think I heard Koan say that she couldn't stand the suffucating heat of this world."  
  
"Yeah, like she had never felt it before. Who knows where they really come from..."  
  
Comfortable on the stone bench, Ami was typing on her computer, lost in some strange calculations.  
  
In her new male clothes and form, Rei was suffering from sultriness as never before in her life. Getting air in her shirt wasn't enough, she felt like a furnace. "In ten minutes we are leaving this park. I'm dying."  
  
Minako was having fun. "Today you transformed from the moment we left the temple."  
  
"I was hoping to give that idiot Mamoru more time to see me with Usagi. But he too must have locked himself up in the hole he calls home."  
  
Sitting next to her, Usagi did not stand up in defense of the love of her life. She contemplated depressedly the tiles of the path under her shoes, studying how they were burning in the scorching sun.  
  
Rei was lying behind her back, sprawled by her side in a position only two people who were very confortable with each other would adopt. Ami, Minako and Makoto had strategically positioned themselves a couple of meters away from them, in a separate group, signaling the other two were a couple. The girls had been following them for days, out of pure curiosity. They too wanted to be present for the moment in which Mamoru would see once again Usagi and her alleged new suitor.  
  
Unfortunately he too, like their enemies, has no longer been seen around. He was neither at the Crown nor at the arcade.  
  
They had asked Motoki if he had left town, maybe to take a little vacation, but Motoki knew nothing about him.  
  
"Such friends," Makoto had commented.  
  
Usagi had explained once again what Mamoru was like. "He doesn't talk much about himself. He doesn't think anyone cares."  
  
"Luckily he doesn't lack self-esteem, otherwise..."  
  
Usagi had seen no flaws in him. "He's perfect the way he is."  
  
Makoto hadn't argued back: it was impossible to do so with a girl in love. However, from what she had seen, that love had brought nothing but unhappiness to Usagi. "I feel like going to Mamoru's house and bring him here by force, so that he can see you with..."  
  
"Sora," Rei reminded her. "Sora Hino. I attend second year of law school with excellent grades. I recently moved to Tokyo and I have a weakness for cute blondes."  
  
"Rei." Minako was a little apologetic. "If only we could keep you like this forever. Maybe I should sabotage the moon pen."  
  
Disgusted, Rei rolled her tongue out of her mouth. "You think I'd choose you? I still like men, you know?"  
  
The phrase whetted Makoto's imagination. "Hmm. You and another handsome guy, maybe a senpai... All alone, on a summer evening..."  
  
Ami was trying not to listen to them. "Girls!"  
  
"Don't be a bore, Ami. You have no hormones!"  
  
Ami found the sentence to be most imprecise. "I have them like everyone else. Perhaps my hippotalamus produces less dopamine at this stage of my life, but-"  
  
Minako started singing over her voice. Ami would have been angry if out of the corner of her eye she hadn't seen a black-haired figure she recognized, at the entrance of the park.  
  
Mamoru had appeared and had stopped to look at them from afar.  
  
Ami feigned indifference, without warning the others. He was sneakily checking what Usagi and Rei were doing. In that very moment Rei was talking to Usagi, worried, looking at her in apprehension from below, with her head a few centimeters from her hips. In response Usagi was confiding something to her.  
  
The deception was unfair to Mamoru, but as days passed by, Ami had become convinced that, if he really wanted to, he had every chance to turn the situation around. He just had to talk to Usagi and open up a bit.  
  
Mamoru realized he was being watched and disappeared in direction of the street, taking away the aura of unhappiness that surrounded him.  
  
Minako had gone from playful warbles to a real song, in an attempt to demonstrate her vocal skills to everyone.  
  
Ami braced for the onslaught. "Girls."  
  
Her tone intrigued Makoto. "What?"  
  
"Um... Mamoru passed by just a minute ago."  
  
Usagi jumped to her feet. "WHERE?!"  
  
"That way, but-"  
  
"Did he see me?"  
  
"Yes, but-"  
  
Rei could not stop her, Usagi had already run away.  
  
"No, no, no! That girl never listens to me! She doesn't have to chase him, she is going to ruin everything! I am going to catch up with them and-"  
  
"Rei." Ami needed only one word to block her. "Stay here. Let's give them another chance."  
  
"He has had dozens of them. He keeps hurting her!"  
  
"It's true, but... today he seemed devastated. Let him speak to her alone one last time."  
  
Shivering, Rei remained where she was, ardently hoping she wouldn't regret it.  
  


* * *

  
"Mamoru!"  
  
Mamoru couldn't believe that Usagi had followed him. He turned around, without even needing to modulate his expression: he felt dull and indifferent. By now she was going out steadily with another guy, what did she want from him?  
  
Usagi wore her feelings on her face; she was nervous and full of sorrow. She lowered the hand she had stretched out in his direction, purposely remaining at a distance.  
  
She had not come after him to attempt yet another reconciliation.  
  
"I wanted you to know..."  
  
"You have found another boyfriend." And of course she felt guilty about it.  
  
She bowed her head, joining her hands. "It's just that I..."  
  
"You've taken back the promises you made to me."  
  
She shuddered.  
  
"I did it first," he clarified.  
  
Usagi was shaking her head.  
  
"You were sincere." I was sincere too. I still am. "You have nothing to be ashamed of." He meant it. Usagi had not disappointed him. Fate had done that.  
  
She stared at him with a glossy patina over her eyes. She was trying unsuccessfully not to cry. "Does it end like this?"  
  
 _I prefer you alive rather than with me._ "As I told you before, yes."  
  
In her gaze, for the first time, he saw a spark of resentment.  
  
He prepared to leave, so as not to be overwhelmed by it.  
  
"I haven't allowed him to kiss me yet."  
  
The image blocked him on the spot.  
  
She clenched her teeth. "But he has already embraced me. He listens to me and makes me feel good. What he feels for me is more real than the dream of a prince who said he was reborn to love me."  
  
 _In fact I am not Endymion, I am Mamoru._ The answer should have emphasized the difference, bu it could be misunderstood: as Mamoru he loved her much more than Endymion. The prince he had been would never have had the strength to leave her. He would have stayed by her side, clinging to hope and happiness, so as not to be away from her.  
  
Usagi swallowed, her cheeks marred by two single tears. "Don't come to my rescue anymore."  
  
It was a request he couldn't satisfy. "I am still Tuxedo Kamen."  
  
"So you must keep me alive for the good of the world?"  
  
He would have said anything to keep on defending her. "Yes."  
  
"I hate you, Mamo-chan."  
  
Broken, she ran away. Mamoru remained alone, swallowed up by a chasm of affliction.  
  


* * *

  
"I'm gonna kill him."  
  
Usagi had just finished telling her friends everything, sobbing. "Even if you do, he is not going to come back to me."  
  
Rei couldn't care less. "I'm going to kill him anyway."  
  
Minako was feeling for her friend. She knew what it meant to see a love end. She had believed it wouldn't happen between Usagi and Mamoru, but... "Usagi." She took her hand. "Maybe it would be better to leave it alone for awhile. It doesn't mean that you have to lose all hope for the future, but..."  
  
"You can't let him keep hurting you," Makoto interfered.  
  
Minako nodded, but Usagi didn't let her finish her advice. "I've already decided." She swallowed the knot of devastation that was blocking her throat. "What was between us was too beautiful for him to ruin it this way. I won't give him the chance to say bad things to me anymore."  
  
"Good." Rei couldn't agree more.  
  
"I will stop talking to him. I will look the other way when I meet him."  
  
To Ami it seemed a rational plan, but at the same time it was a huge defeat for a confident and positive person like Usagi. "Do what you feel best, without making any final decisions."  
  
Usagi had stopped crying and was looking in apathy in front of her. "I must make them, Ami-chan. Or I will end up hating Mamoru for real."  
  
PART 3 - END  
  


* * *

  
N/A: I am VERY interested in knowing what you think and how you feel by this part of the story. I tried to convey a vast array of feelings with these scenes and I'd like to know If I have succeded. Are you feeling Usagi and Mamoru's pain as deeply as me?  
Also, as usual, the more comments I receive, the more enthusiastically I'll keep translating this story.   
The next part is the final one and is going to be longer, with all the issues between the couple coming to an end!  
  
Elle  
  



	4. Final part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Usagi and Mamoru trust each other enough to reconcile?

  
The first time it happened, Mamoru suffered but didn't feel like blaming Usagi.  
She saw him in the street and immediately changed directions, crossing at the traffic lights to get as far away from him as possible.  
The second time he only heard her voice. She was ordering an onigiri in a new place. He was before her in the line and he heard her enthusiastically commenting on the tastiness of the products on sale. She suddenly stopped talking and Mamoru didn't even have time to turn around: she had already disappeared, running away.  
 _I can't even look at you._  
He missed her laugh.  
...was she laughing with her new boyfriend?  
Had she already kissed him?  
 _I don't want to kiss anyone else. Never again, for the rest of my life._  
Stupidly, he resented her a bit for not showing the same dedication.  
But how would I have reacted if she had been the one to leave me? If she had showed me contempt repeatedly?  
Probably he wouldn't have given up and would have searched for her, trying to understand.  
Just as Usagi had done.  
He did not blame her. The mistakes were all his.  
One afternoon he couldn't stand it any longer. "How is Usagi?" he asked Chibiusa.  
The child sulked. Before answering, she contemplated her homework sheet. "She doesn't speak about you anymore. She no longer wants to come with me when I visit you."  
Oh.  
He didn't notice Chibiusa's gaze, focusing on him. "Now you are as sad as she is."  
Mamoru swallowed up. "I just wanted to make sure that..." He didn't know what excuse to invent.  
"You laughed a lot when the two of you were still together."  
He didn't comment on that.  
Chibiusa began to color with her pencils, dejected. "If you love her, you shouldn't make her cry."  
He felt like a monster. Even a little girl understood that he was the source of Usagi's sorrows. He had managed to transform a good and pure person like his Usako into a creature that basked in pain and resentment.  
Chibiusa stared at him again, unhappy but determined. "I'll tell her that you are lying and you still love her."  
Mamoru gasped. "No! You don't understand what's going on! You are still a child and-"  
Chibiusa jumped up. "I am a child but I love my mommy and daddy!" Her scream filled the room. "If they were here, I wouldn't kick them out! I'd always stay with them and I'd want to be in their arms all the time! You are a fool, Mamo-chan, because you can and you don't!" She fled towards the entrance. A few seconds later, Mamoru heard the door slam.  
Dazed, he sat on the floor, motionless.  


* * *

  
The night she sensed the arrival of a new droid, Usagi armed herself with courage.  
She was afraid - not of fighting, but of seeing Mamoru again. She had managed to completely avoid his participation in the previous battle, fighting efficiently and quickly, assisted by her friends.  
But this time? Would she manage not to fall? Could she avoid being hit and saved? The worst would be to find herself in Mamoru's arms. No, in Mamo-chan's.  
As she had imagined, she wasn't strong enough. After a few days of distance, she was already pining for him, aching at the idea that she had hurt him with her indifference. She couldn't even see him or speak to him...  
When she had acted as if nothing had happened and hadn't insisted so much, at least she had been able to spend time with him along with Chibiusa. She hadn't been able to stare at him, but she had walked by his side, not even a meter away. She had heard his voice, she had witnessed small gestures of kindness. Not addressed to her, but...  
... she was a weak girl.  
"Usako." She remembered his arm around her shoulders and his mouth pressed against her forehead. "I'll never let you go."  
She had been so stupid, for weeks.  
Mamoru loved her - maybe very much or at least just a little. For whatever reason, however, he had decided they didn't deserve a chance. Therefore, with every word he spoke to her, he destroyed the pure beauty of the love they shared.  
Soon the 'I hate you's would outnumber the 'I love you's. Even though they were blatant lies, she no longer wanted to hear them.  
She accelerated her pace while nearing the battle scene, determined to finish the fight as quickly as possible.  
She was allowed think about Mamoru, but first she had to take care of the people who were in danger. She was a warrior, her task was to fight and protect the defenseless. Yes, she was Sailor Moon.  
 _I have a duty to fulfill and I can do it without Tuxedo Kamen._  
-  
She had called her friends to the battle site - an antique store - but the strategy of Kalaveras' s new droid made it a vain precaution.  
"Come and get me if you dare, Sailor Moon!"  
The monster vanished into the night, holding a girl in her arms.  
Usagi chased after her, aghast. "Wait, where are you taking her?"  
She jumped from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit of the droid, further and further away from the initial point of combat.  
What were they trying to do to that girl? Maybe nothing. The more they moved away, the more it all seemed like a trap designed for her. Usagi kept her Cutie Moon rod firmly in her hand, to avoid being caught unprepared.  
The droid suddenly stopped. "This is it!" She knocked her victim away, sending her over the parapet of the five-story building they had landed on.  
"NO!" Usagi shouted. She sprang forward, but she was too far away, it was too late for-  
Behind the droid she saw a black cloak flying through the night; she was genuinely happy to see Mamoru - holding the unconscious girl in his arms.  
Kalaveras appeared in the sky. "The pretty boy with the top hat has arrived, but he won't disturb our plans! Spazium, create your vortex!"  
"Yes, master!"  
Usagi didn't wait for the monster in skirt to shape her attack. She twirled her rod. "Mooon princess...!"  
Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Mamoru's stick had stretched out to hit Kalaveras in the stomach. Outraged, their enemy was screaming at him, and perhaps she was getting ready to-  
The moment Usagi launched her attack on the droid, she saw what the creature had produced: it was some sort of dark, infinite hole that deformed space. It attracted everything around it, including her energy. It absorbed it like a vacuum cleaner. The more Usagi directed her power towards its center, the more she lost her grip on the ground. She was about to be sucked in.  
She saw a flash in the air - Kalaveras disappearing - and had only a moment to be happy that the woman hadn't hurled herself at Mamoru. Her left foot slid forward. "Ahhhhhh-!"  
The suction stopped suddenly.  
The droid was covering her eyes: a rose had grazed them. "Damn you!"  
Usagi was on the ground and was unable to immediately get back on her feet. The monster turned towards Mamoru.  
"You'll end up in the immensity of my black hole! Spazium!"  
No! Usagi threw her rod in the middle of her face - without even trying to use it.  
"Ouch!" The droid held her nose. "How dare you? Ah, but now you're without weapons, it's your turn to..."  
Mamoru hit her body with three roses, in rapid sequence.  
Jumping up, Usagi brought her fingers to the center of her own forehead, grabbing her golden tiara. "Moon Tiara Action!" She adapted her old attack to necessity, using the energy band as a giant ring to hold the droid around the midriff. She knew it wouldn't last, and as the monster struggled, she ran to the spot where her rod had ended up.  
Mamoru reached it first, throwing it at her. "Here!"  
Usagi grabbed it on the fly, without error or hesitation. "Moon Princess..."  
The droid freed herself from her yoke - too late to survive.  
"Halation!"  
The attack pulverized her instantly.  
In the silence that followed, Usagi stood watching the glittering remains of the lunar power fading into the air.  
She was out of breath. "How is the girl?"  
She realized she had spoken only when the words came out of her mouth. With great effort, she managed not to cover her lips with her fingers.  
In the fight Mamoru had lost his hat. He went to pick it up from the ground - no more than a silhouette in the darkness of the night, with the light of the street lamps too far away to illuminate them. "She is fine. I'll bring her back."  
Usages was quivering, jittery. "Okay. I'm leaving."  
"Wait."  
She had turned and didn't turn back for him.  
Mamoru didn't need to see her face to talk. "Don't chase after enemies anymore. This was a plan to get you away from the others - so that no one could help you."  
She had figured that out on her own. "I should have let them take the girl?"  
"Yes. In cases like these, I will intervene. You stay where you are."  
He had managed to make her angry. "You are not always there!"  
"But sooner or later I arrive."  
"That's not true! Even then, you are not part of our team, you come and go as you please!"  
She didn't know whether to rejoice or feel like a worm at the sight of his shocked face. Not that she could see it, but she perceived it. Maybe because he was getting closer - with his fists tight and his cloak waving behind him.  
"I promise you now, I'll take care of these matters."  
A promise? From him? "Why should I trust you? You don't keep your word."  
He didn't reply.  
Usagi felt petty, as never before in her life. She backed away, preparing to leave.  
"Just stay where the other Senshi can assist you."  
He insisted! "What right do you have to ask me that?"  
"None!" he blurted out. "But if you want me to stop helping you in battle, let me at least do that!"  
Her chest dripped with pain. "When there will be no way for you to assist me, what are you going to do? You will stay and watch until I need you?"  
Mamoru remained motionless in the dim light. "Yes."  
Usagi allowed herself a grimace of agony, only because in the darkness he couldn't see it. "This is not what I want from you."  
The silence she received in response was so total that it was soon overwhelmed by the rustling of the wind.  
She had been rejected again - once more. Another wound inflicted on the feelings they had shared. "I have decided not to think of you anymore," she declared. She was lapidary and stubborn, filled with anger. "Today I gave my first kiss to Sora-kun. I thought I would never give another first kiss in my life, but... you made me do it. It went well, I found out that one kiss is as good as the other". Don't cry, don't cry. "Soon his kisses will please me as much as yours - no, more than yours! And I'll love him so much, and thinking about you will no longer make me deva..."  
Mamoru had closed his fingers around her wrist. "Don't," he murmured.  
Usagi couldn't stop shaking. "Don't what?" she asked in a small voice.  
"Don't kiss a guy you don't love."  
Why not? "If it's not you, what difference does it make?"  
Her cheeks were wet with tears. She gasped in jerks, shattered, even more so when she realized that Mamoru still held her hand.  
He wasn't gone. He had stayed, he was listening to her.  
She loved him so much for it that she was left breathless. She panted while speaking. "Even if you don't want to be with me anymore, I will love you every day, Mamo-chan."  
He shook his head. "No."  
"Yes. Whatever you say, whatever you do..."  
"You must hate me."  
"I cannot hate you. I will love you from afar if that's what you need. I will ask for nothing..."  
Mamoru tightened his grip on her, advancing one step. "I am the one asking you to help me."  
Usagi was desperate. "Help you do what?" She wanted to crush his face against her chest, consoling him.  
"Don't think about me anymore."  
It was a heartfelt prayer she couldn't grant. "I'd have to be dead not to do it."  
"That's exactly what you risk!"  
Usagi didn't understand. She didn't care. "I have been risking my life ever since I became Sailor Moon. You have given me strength from the very beginning. Even today."  
Overcome by the effort of holding back, he shuddered. "What if one day I become your weakness?"  
She held him by his shoulders. "How could you? Everything you touch in me becomes light, Mamo-chan. You make me invincible."  
He crushed her against his body. In the darkness they went by memory: she lifted her head, he bent his. They grazed each other's mouths. Usagi collapsed against him and with her cooperation Mamoru pulled her up, for a more intense, infinite kiss.  
The taste, the warmth of his lips.  
She wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing him, forcing him not to break away, trying not to lose him anymore.  
She could die on the spot, of happiness.  
She felt dampness on her cheeks. She understood that she was not the one crying as soon as she heard Mamoru sobbing.  
He moaned. "You'll die if you stay with me..."  
She pressed a soft kiss on his lips, next to his nose. "Who says it?"  
Mamoru clutched his eyelids, holding her head in his hands. "I dream of it every night..."  
A nightmare? She couldn't stay angry with him, not after seeing him in such a state. "It's not going to happen."  
"You don't know how real it feels. You don't know what I saw this dream do in reality-"  
Usagi forced him to open his eyes. "I know who I am. And I know what I can beat when you are with me. The only thing that makes me weak is not having you near me, Mamoru. Stay with me and save me. Fight by my side."  
His assent was a surrender - for both of them a victory, even though it didn't feel like one for him.  
Usagi wanted him to join her in the absolute ecstasy she was basking in. "You never stopped loving me?"  
She kissed him and let him kiss her convulsely before allowing him to respond.  
"Never."  
"They were all lies?"  
"Yes. Each and every one of them, Usako." Mamoru rubbed his face against hers. "I missed you like air."  
For that moment alone, she thought, it had been almost worth agonizing so much - almost.  
"You won't leave me alone anymore, right?"  
He stroked her back, vigorously. "Never. I won't allow you to die. I'll die first, no one will hurt you."  
It was a love declaration too gloomy! "No one will die! You and I will live happily for so long that at some point you'll get tired of all the fussing of your Usagi-chan."  
Mamoru held his forehead pressed against hers, eyes closed for the relief of the heavy weight that had just left him. "The fussing of my Usako. And I will not tire of it. I'll love everything that comes to your mind."  
It almost didn't seem true to hear him say it. "I'll cook at your house."  
"Hm-hm."  
"I'll stick to you day and night."  
His lips stretched out in a longed-for smile. "This is a prize. I don't deserve it."  
She wrapped her arms around him, to guard him. "Of course you do. You deserve all the love in the world, Mamo-chan."  


* * *

  
Minako jumped on her feet when she heard the news. "Really? You two made up?"  
Rei couldn't make sense of it. "Last night? Why didn't you tell us?"  
In the shrine's square Usagi blushed, tormenting her fingers. "I wanted to be alone with him."  
Makoto felt like crying for her.  
Ami was immensely happy, but also worried. "Did he tell you why...?"  
"Yes. He had nightmares."  
"Nightmares?" Rei couldn't believe her own ears. She gritted her teeth, trying not to explode.  
Usagi understood the reason for her anger. "I know how it sounds... he will explain it better to me today. The nightmares were about me, he thought he was keeping me safe by staying away. Yesterday, after we brought the girl back to the store, I slept in his bed for a while, to reassure him."  
She stopped talking, because all her friends were gaping.  
Usagi went red up to the tip of her chignons. "What are you thinking?! We slept - slept! I embraced him like a child, to make sure he didn't have any more bad dreams!"  
Minako giggled mercilessly. "Of cooourse. Like a child!"  
"Minako!"  
Rei was impressed by her forwardness. "I didn't know you were willing to go that far to get him back."  
"Rei!"  
Makoto stopped laughing. "If you are sure that everything will be all right from now on, Usagi..."  
She nodded without hesitation. "Mamoru knows that he has made a mistake. I think he will regret his behaviour for the rest of his life." She tried to joke, to lighten the atmosphere. "Can you imagine what I can make him do now? He will satisfy all my whims."  
Rei hoped so, otherwise she wouldn't warn anyone in advance and she would beat him mercilessly. "Speaking of which... tell me that you have been clever and haven't told him the truth about my alter-ego."  
"Well..." Usagi felt an enormous smile grow on her face.  
-  
"So, how did it go?"  
She rejoined Mamoru half an hour later. She was very happy to find him calm and reconciled with the decision he had made. If by chance he had had another nightmare in the early hours of the morning, he was no longer thinking about it.  
Sitting on the park bench, he took her hands, waiting for her answer.  
Usagi didn't feel guilty for lying. By comparison, hers was an innocent white lie. "I went to Sora-kun and told him that we can no longer see each other."  
Mamoru nodded, satisfied but still vaguely restless.  
It was very nice to see him slightly jealous.  
He had another question for her. "Will this Sora stay in Tokyo much longer?"  
"Oh no. He is leaving tomorrow; he said that without me he has no more reason to stay." She thought she had gone too far with the lie, but Mamoru found it a credible version.  
Her self-esteem grew by thousands.  
"He didn't try to kiss you again, did he?"  
Uhh, she could be merciful about that. "In truth..." She rocked their hands.  
"What?"  
"I exaggerated the story of our kiss. He never kissed me."  
Mamoru was astonished. "Really?"  
"Really. And you must know that it hurt me that it wasn't this that made you give in. I insisted on telling you about these other kisses, and you didn't even-"  
"Your life was worth more than my jealousy."  
"Then it bothered you?" she dared to ask.  
Mamoru observed her. With great awareness, he smiled. "You should have said that he was better than me. As long as I maintained the first place..."  
Usagi messed up his hair with both hands. Seeing him laugh was a balm for all the pain they had experienced.  
Going back serious, she looked him straight in the eye. "Do you need me to sleep with you tonight too?"  
"No, Usako. I had that dream again, but this time you didn't fly away surrounded by rubble. You took your magical rod and in your wedding dress you fought against all the enemies. Then, as soon you won, you put your bride veil back on and led me to the altar."  
Happy, Usagi swept him in an embrace. "I'll do just that!"  
Hugging her, Mamoru knew that everything would be all right.  
At the entrance to the park, he saw a small figure with pink hair clutching the straps of her backpack.  
Chibiusa wasn't sulking. Meeting his smiling look, she stuck her cheerful tongue out at him and ran away.  
"I told you, I was right!"  
Hearing her in his head, Mamoru nodded and rested his chin against Usagi's shoulder.  
  
SAVE ME - THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N/A - Yu-huu! This is the first multichapter story I've completely translated in English. I hope you enjoyed it.  
> In my mind Mamoru had to crumble to aknowledge his feelings. He hadn't trusted Usagi because he was overwhelmed by fear - for her, but still. It was as if the anime allowed him to continue as before after the break up, and I don't think it was a good thing for him.  
> In my mind that was one of the reasons Usagi, in the fifth season, seriously believed he wasn't writing back to her for months. They loved each other, but they still didn't completely trusted (or knew) the other.  
> I am telling you this because this is the premise of the first story of my saga, "Beyond the stars".  
> Exactly as I did in this story, my goal is to understand better the couple Usagi and Mamoru formed in the anime, giving them the opportunity to confront their issues, thus allowing them to live their love to the fullest.  
> Follow my profile to receive notifications of my updates :)  
> And please, let me know what you think of this story! As a writer, to me it's always important to receive feedback. I admit I get a lot of inspiration for new stories after I read good comments :)
> 
> Elle


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